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Judges Writeup

Prize

Sponsor

We had a fantastic amount of really excellent images for February's competition, so it was an extremely hard one to judge. Here's what our sponsor and guest judge Danny James of Elemental Studio Lighting had to say...

"The winner of our first ever sponsored competition was actually a real no brainer for me. Whilst the competition was of an incredibly high standard, this shot really stood out for several reasons; 1: The composition is wonderfully off centre. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, but as a portrait photographer myself I rarely use symmetrical or centralised composition any more, and this is a perfect example of the brilliant use of space. In some photos the left side would just look like dead wood, but here it serves to draw your attention to the focus point – the girl.
2: The sky is so stunning, and the oblique angle that the camera is being held at has created a lovely diagonal with two contrast tonal ranges. And make no mistake, the depth of field has been carefully judged so as to leave the separation in the sky.
3: Her eyes are just alight with emotion, and you can feel the intensity. Overall the shot is beautifully lit with nice textures formed by the shadows, especially around her face and hair.
An easy winner for me."